Because of the pollution problems caused by existing internal combustion engines, there has recently been considerable effort expended toward providing pollution free vehicular power plants. One of the alternatives suggested has been electrically driven vehicles having battery power sources. Although this approach has been used for some time for short-range special-purpose vehicles, such as golf carts and fork lift trucks, conventional batteries are not well adapted for use as the primary energy source to propel general purpose vehicles. Besides lacking sufficient ampere-hour capacity for extended use, the weight of conventional batteries seriously inhibits their use as the primary source of energy for general utility vehicles.
There is disclosed in the aforementioned application, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, an electrically driven vehicle having means for receiving power from a specially prepared roadway and batteries for driving the vehicle for travel on conventional roads. When traveling on the specially prepared roadways, sufficient energy is coupled to the vehicle to charge the battery for subsequent travel on conventional roadways.
An important factor in the acceptability of a vehicle which is driven at various times by energy coupled from a specially prepared roadway is the cost of such roadways. Using the Los Angeles Basin as an example, there are tens of thousands of miles of streets and highways presently in existence. Less than about 500 miles of the highway network in the Los Angeles Basin would have to be equipped with power conductors in accordance with this invention to provide a completely satisfactory electrical distribution network for vehicles of the type described in the aforementioned application. As will become apparent hereinafter, not all of the lanes of these roads must be equipped with a power conductor in accordance with this invention thereby making the total number of lane miles to be equipped rather moderate.